Cleaning up your life... How good is good enough?
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
For those who think that they can clean up their lives by themselves they don't see their true plight. We all stand guilty before God. We don't realize that we as people have been condemned by God's law according to John 3:18 & Romans 3:19. Even if a criminal were to stand before the judge and admit that he is guilty do you think the judge would let him go just because he says he will clean up his life? We as people are in debt to the law and we must be punished under the law, and it doesn't matter if we try to clean our lives up in the sight of men because it is only in the sight of God that that punishment can be changed.
I like to read the scripture in Matthew 19: 16-24 which is the story related to the rich young ruler. It reads "and behold, one came and said to him, good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is God; but if you will enter into life, keep the Commandments. He said to him, which? Jesus you shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all of these things have I kept from my youth up; what do I lack yet? Jesus said to him, if you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Jesus then said to his disciples, verily I say to you, that are rich man show hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven."
At that time Jesus disciples were really amazed at what Jesus said, they ask him;" who can possibly enter in to the kingdom of heaven who then can be saved?" And then is when Jesus said "with the men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible". The point of all this is to say that we rely too much on our own devices to do God's will. We simply refuse to listen when God tells us that our main job is to believe what he tells us, and then to be witnesses of what he has done for us to those people who we live with every day. It becomes these things that are the most important to God and yet we are constantly trying to sidestep those requests. The truth is that we can never be good enough on our own. It has taken God's own intervention into our very existence to give us even a chance at salvation. Without Jesus as our perfect sacrifice we have no perfection in this physical world. I had an interesting discussion with my men's Bible study not long ago that brought out the fact that Jesus has no real physical reference given of his appearance as a man, whether he was handsome, rugged, or in any physical way intimidating. Every indication of Jesus perfection dealt with his spiritual presence. I think it's time that we began to see the true values are to us on a spiritual basis, and then started to seek those things of God, and of our eternal life that will be meaningful to us as we live out eternity. My heart truly goes out to those people who continue to try to have 1 foot in the world and 1 foot in the kingdom. Jesus has already told us that we cannot have both, we will hate one and love the other; or despises one and cling to the other. I can't help but wonder how many Christians are still doing that? May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
For those who think that they can clean up their lives by themselves they don't see their true plight. We all stand guilty before God. We don't realize that we as people have been condemned by God's law according to John 3:18 & Romans 3:19. Even if a criminal were to stand before the judge and admit that he is guilty do you think the judge would let him go just because he says he will clean up his life? We as people are in debt to the law and we must be punished under the law, and it doesn't matter if we try to clean our lives up in the sight of men because it is only in the sight of God that that punishment can be changed.
I like to read the scripture in Matthew 19: 16-24 which is the story related to the rich young ruler. It reads "and behold, one came and said to him, good master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said to him, why do you call me good? There is none good but one, that is God; but if you will enter into life, keep the Commandments. He said to him, which? Jesus you shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, all of these things have I kept from my youth up; what do I lack yet? Jesus said to him, if you will be perfect, go and sell what you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. Jesus then said to his disciples, verily I say to you, that are rich man show hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven."
At that time Jesus disciples were really amazed at what Jesus said, they ask him;" who can possibly enter in to the kingdom of heaven who then can be saved?" And then is when Jesus said "with the men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible". The point of all this is to say that we rely too much on our own devices to do God's will. We simply refuse to listen when God tells us that our main job is to believe what he tells us, and then to be witnesses of what he has done for us to those people who we live with every day. It becomes these things that are the most important to God and yet we are constantly trying to sidestep those requests. The truth is that we can never be good enough on our own. It has taken God's own intervention into our very existence to give us even a chance at salvation. Without Jesus as our perfect sacrifice we have no perfection in this physical world. I had an interesting discussion with my men's Bible study not long ago that brought out the fact that Jesus has no real physical reference given of his appearance as a man, whether he was handsome, rugged, or in any physical way intimidating. Every indication of Jesus perfection dealt with his spiritual presence. I think it's time that we began to see the true values are to us on a spiritual basis, and then started to seek those things of God, and of our eternal life that will be meaningful to us as we live out eternity. My heart truly goes out to those people who continue to try to have 1 foot in the world and 1 foot in the kingdom. Jesus has already told us that we cannot have both, we will hate one and love the other; or despises one and cling to the other. I can't help but wonder how many Christians are still doing that? May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Thank you for the reminder! Good message.
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